By Matt Le CrenNAPERVILLE – New Trier forward Nicole Kaspi hit the shot with her left foot, and the birthday girl did all right.

Kaspi celebrated her 18th birthday in style Saturday, scoring a terrific goal off a feed from fellow senior Victoria Flannagan midway through the first half of the Naperville Invitational championship match at Memorial Stadium.

The strike was one of the prettiest goals of the 2018 season so far. Combined with air-tight defense it gave the Trevians, ranked second in the Chicagoland Soccer top 25, a memorable 1-0 victory over no. 5 Naperville North in a possible preview of the Class 3A state title game.

“I give Victoria 100 percent credit,” Kaspi said. “She was able to take the endline super fast and beat their outside back.

“Then she played such an easy ball into the middle, and I happened to be there.”

Flannagan started the play by outracing the defense to the left endline before sending a ball to the near post just inside the 6.

The Huskies had tight coverage on Kaspi, but she got to the ball a split second before a defender and one-timed it past Naperville North goalie Maddie Hausmann, who was in position to make the reflex save but had it go just under her arm with 19:56 left in the first half.

“It was played perfectly to my feet, and I just hit it lefty,” Kaspi said. “I’m a righty, but I took a chance, and it ended up working out.”

Kaspi and Flannagan acted as a mutual admiration society after the game, with each giving credit to the other for the decisive strike.

“Yeah, it wouldn’t have been a goal if she wasn’t there,” Flannagan pointed out.

Actually, Flannagan didn’t know if Kaspi or any of her other teammates would be there to meet the ball.

“I didn’t see Nicole coming,” Flannagan said. “A lot of times I will dribble down and hope someone is there.

“Most of the time I’m just speeding by people and hoping there is someone there to finish it, and luckily this time she was there.”

Not only was that the only chance that was finished by either side, it was the only serious scoring threat of a match between two tired, supremely gifted defenses.

New Trier (12-0-2), which has allowed only four goals this season, did not allow a shot. The Huskies (11-3-3) gave up nine, five of which were on frame. Hausmann easily stopped the other four in addition to picking off a few corner kicks.

But the Loyola-bound senior was foiled in her bid for her 12th shutout.

“I give them props,” Hausmann said. “It was a very beautiful goal, just a reaction save I couldn’t get.

“They just got by in the one hole that was possible, and it was a well-shot ball. I think it skimmed underneath my forearm.”

With the way New Trier was playing defense, the goal seemed to open up a gulf between the two sides. It certainly gave the Trevians some peace of mind.

“I really think (the goal) gave us confidence, because we were all able to lean on each other a little bit more because we were up 1-0,” Kaspi said. “We just have to talk, communicate and relax.”

The Trevians did that even though the Huskies battled hard despite tired legs. New Trier was playing its fifth match in six days while Naperville North was on the pitch for the fourth time in five days.

The Huskies, though, had arguably the tougher road as they beat no.4 Neuqua Valley in DuPage Valley Conference action Tuesday, then had to knock off 13th-ranked St. Charles East 2-1 in Thursday’s quarterfinals and defending state and tournament champion no. 3 Barrington 1-0 in Friday’s semifinals.

The Trevians didn’t face that gauntlet, although they needed a shootout to get past Neuqua Valley in the semifinals.

“I feel like we gave it our all,” Hausmann said. “Of course, every single game we try to go really hard, and today we battled incredibly hard.

“I give props to my team because it came down to one goal. Of course, it was the one goal we couldn’t get. We made one mistake and it ended up biting us a little too hard.”

But what is it about New Trier’s defense that makes it so hard to solve?

“In the air they are really good,” Hausmann said. “They stopped all the long balls, which is what they need to do.”

The Trevians did it despite losing starting goalie Megan Dwyer and starting defender Meredith Nassar to injury in the second half. Dwyer left after taking a shot to the jaw with 37:23 remaining, while Nassar departed five minutes later when she hit her head on the turf after heading a ball out of trouble.

“It speaks volumes about our defenders Meredith, Sydney (Parker), Nell (Martin) and Caroline (Iserloth), and then (backup goalie) Courtney (Charchut) came in and came off her line and made a great play,” New Trier coach Jim Burnside said. “That’s kind of what New Trier soccer is -- the next person is ready to step in and they battle. They practice so hard to get themselves ready.”

The Trevians, who won the tournament title for the first time since 2010 and fifth time overall, knew they were in for a battle against Naperville North, which was appearing in the final for the fourth-straight year, a feat matched only by New Trier in the 21-year history of the tournament.

“That’s the hard thing about this,” Burnside said. “You’ve got to grind against a good, physical team like (Naperville North).

“They’re organized, and you’ve got to take advantage of your opportunities. Their keeper is awesome, and so it’s hard to score on her.”

But not impossible.

“When you get to be playing the best teams in the state of Illinois, you’ve got to be perfect,” Naperville North coach Steve Goletz said. “I know that’s a lot to ask as a coach, but you have to be perfect.

“We weren’t perfect for 30 seconds and credit goes to the girls on New Trier.

The girl (Flannagan) gets in; she whips a great ball. The girl (Kaspi) makes the right run, and she buries it. That’s what separates great teams.

“It was just a great play. Could we have been tighter? Yes. Could we have stopped the service? Yes. But that’s the game of soccer.”

Ironically, the Huskies were singing the same tune that Barrington could have sung the night before.

“I told our girls I couldn’t be prouder of the week we had to get here, and I think we just ran out of gas a little bit. But that’s the best team we’ve played all year, and they were absolutely dominant in the air,” Goletz said. “They were dominant in 50-50 and first and second balls.

“Kind of what we did to Barrington they did to us. The only thing I would say that’s different is they weren’t as dangerous.”

“If we’re not playing New Trier today, we would probably win today with the effort we put together. When you’re playing a team this good, you can’t have a letdown and we had a small letdown.

“It shouldn’t take away what we’ve accomplished in the last two weeks, because I really think as a group we’ve taken a huge step forward. Now the challenge is can we keep that going through the end of the year.”

Hausmann thinks the Huskies can.

“I think we battled this entire tournament,” Hausmann said. “We shut out most of the teams that we played.

“I feel like we’re clicking and have bonded a little bit more. We’ve developed a team passion.” Starting lineups